This is a book I read in high-school, but I liked it so much that I decided to read it again. This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk ;)
“Science and medicine deal with the body, while philosophy deals with the mind and soul, as necessary to a physician as food and air.” –Noah Gordon
What Is It About?
This is the first book in The Cole Trilogy. Which follows the story of Rob Cole. It all begins in London eleventh century, with the little Rob J. Cole who is orphaned at the age of 9, is "adopted" by a "surgeon-barber" called Barber (quite creative is his name, right?). For years, Rob accompanied Barber throughout England, healing what they could and alleviating people's ailments and seeing how ignorance and superstition revolved around medicine in England.
During the Middle Ages, the art of healing (developed in previous centuries) had been, forgotten in Europe; there are no official doctors or hospitals, only "barber surgeons", who were the doctors of middle and lower society; These were in high demand, more than a surgeon (as they charged more), and the diversity of jobs they did ranged from cutting hair, juggling and telling a joke, to removing teeth and cutting necrotic fingers (it was very common, believe it or not).
For many of the ailments they prescribed and gave a liquid which they called "universal panacea" (from the Greek meaning remedy for everything), which according to surgeon-barbers cured all kinds of discomfort, both physical and emotional. In real life, these types of products did exist, giving the origin to the placebo, since this substance was made mainly of butter and alcohol.
Rob learns the trade of "barber-surgeon" until unfortunately Barber dies.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in the Middle East, medicine and science are not only bearing fruit, but are even evolving.
Alone and with nothing to lose, Rob decides to embark on a journey to the Persian Empire (now Iran) in search of becoming a Hakim ("wise man" in Arabic). This term was used especially for people who made medicine with herbs. His path led him to the famous doctor named Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sīn, better known as Avicenna or Ibn Sina (by the way, he really existed).
However, in this school where they taught the art of medicine, only accepted Jews and Muslims, therefore, Rob had to "change his religion" to be accepted into the school. After years, Rob manages to reach Ispahan and become Hakim, defying many trials and defeats, but always with his head held high to achieve his goal.
My Opinion
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I really liked this book as it tells you what life was like in the 11th century and how one profession was practiced in different ways, depending on where you where in the world. This is a topic that intrigues me a lot: how the medicine of that time continues to be present in our lives, since this is the same basis for current medicine and both have the same objective: to cure the patient, that is with the least possible pain and have an easy recovery.
It is also very interesting to read and know a bit about the way in which the Christian Church at that time had a certain mentality (that many could say that there are still remnants).
The Church rejected everything that it did not understand as well as everything that was not given directly by Gd, as it was considered as black magic or things of the devil and they did not accept scientific medicine because they were linked to witchcraft.
With all this, there were many brave people who did not allow themselves to be overcome by the fear of the Church and continued to discover new methods, thus giving rise to Empirical Medicine. It is for this reason that I think it was much easier to have advancements in the sciences in the Middle East; Another reason was that many of the Greek writings were preserved and translated in the Middle East, so they had more data to continue refining the techniques of healing, analgesia and science in general.
In 2013 they released the movie based on the book, which for an adaptation I think is one of the most decent. Obviously they changed several things about the book, but it is entertaining and the actor who plays Rob (Tom Payne) is quite handsome and it seems to me he acted well (considering that I am not a critic of the Academy).
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